“Conegliano Valdobbiadene” and “Prosecco” the difference not known to all

(pio dal cin – copyright 2020- photo and texts)

If you are an average wine lover you may already have had a glass or a bottle of the sparkling wine that has surpassed its competitor, the french champagne, both in production and sale. Prosecco has become the most produced and sold wine in the world and there isn’t a single Country in the whole Planet where this wonderful product has arrived. It’s like when you say “Coca Cola”. There isn’t any need for a description of the most famous drink that was born in the USA. The question is mainly directed to the wine lovers with some expertise on wines. Do you really know what is the difference between PROSECCO DOC and CONEGLIANO VALDOBBIADENE DOCG? Apparently they are the same wine, and in some way they are. The main difference lays on the TERRITORY and HOW the two TWIN WINES are cultivated and produced.

PROSECCO DOC. Where DOC stands for “DENOMINAZIONE DI ORIGINE CONTROLLATA” (Denomination of Controlled Origin) . Gives you a chance and assurance to know that this wines are produced in an area that spans from part of the WESTERN FRIULI REGION way into the EASTERN PORTION of VENETO REGION as you can see in this chart: The YELLOW AREAS are those who produce PROSECCO DOC. The GREEN AREA is where the CONEGLIANO VALDOBBIADENE DOCG is produced. You may well notice that there is a great difference in the two separated areas.

THE HOURLY RATE USED TO PRODUCE THE TWO “TWIN WINES” WILL MAKE IT VERY SIMPLE

PROSECCO DOC

Imagine yourself producing a PROSECCO DOC in those areas marked in yellow. You are a small producer and you are working ona two ACRES wineyard. You will wake up in the morning like most of farmers do, you will board your air conditioned tractor and you will start with the cure and the pampering that every wineyard needs to produce the GOLDEN YELLOW GRAPES that will be turned into a SPARKLING WINE called PROSECCO DOC by the end of August, beginning of SEPTEMBER. Most of your work will be done by modern machinery and the calculated hourly time to cultivate two acres of wineyard in the YELLOW AREAS is 100 HOURS

The picture above shows how your average 2 acres piece of land planted as wineyard will look like. A straight line, planted with a GPS system that will give you an astonishing accuracy in how the plants are planted for a better result.

THE CONEGLIANO VALDOBBIADENE DOCG

That letter “G” means GUARANTEED. But what does it guarantee more than its TWIN BROTHER? Let’s play it simple one more time: Remember your TWO ACRES on the YELLOW territories? How many hours did we say it takes to cultivate? ONE HUNDRED right? Now the question that is naturally coming to our mind is : HOW MANY HOURS DOES CONEGLIANO VALDOBBIADENE DOCG TAKES TO CULTIVATE? Two hundred? NO Three hundred? Think again.. “Come on, you are kidding me” (you may think). No kidding. Four, Five Hundred? NO. THE ANSWER PLAIN AND SIMPLE IS :BETWEEN SIX AND SEVEN HUNDRED HOURS . Yessir. NO MISTAKES: 600/700 HOURS OF WORK to produce the “Twin” wine in the “Green” or “Core Zone”

Wow. 600/700 hours versus 100 hours for the same amount of land? How is that possible? Is either that the people on the YELLOW AREAS are really fast or is because the PEOPLE on the CORE ZONE are really LAZY OR SLOW? None of the above. They say that a photo is worth a thousands words. Now I’m asking the reader to take a look at the few pictures that I’m going to post below. After you look at the pictures, imagine yourself working as a farmer there.

Ok. I’m swetting just THINKING of walking up those HILLS. Imagine working there, day in day out WITHOUT the AIR CONDITIONED tractors of the Yellow territories and above all, the cure of the wineyard is done COMPLETELY BY HAND. YES. BY HAND

ON July the 7th 2019 THE HILLS HAVE BEEN PROMOTED AS AN “UNESCO SITE” If you will take the time to come up here you will find out the reason not being “Just because of the great wine produced here” but the food, the cheese the various home made products , the warmth of its people, the biking and the hiking, the slow living experience will have you longing to come back and share your wonderful experience with some friends. Of course there are restrictions now due to the COVID PANDEMIC but one day it will all be over and these “EROIC HILLS”(as the local call them as an homage to the great amount of work their ancestors have put into preserving their beauty) will be visited by million of tourists. Be one of them. Take my advice. I Traveled the world as a photojournalist. I am lucky to live here. There isn’t a better place to be on Earth. Venice is just one hour away, so are the Adriatic Beaches. Cortina d’Ampezzo (Winter Olympic Games of 2026) is just an hour and a half by car.

While you are waiting for the frontiers to open you will be able to shop online and buy some of the wine of COLLINE DI CONEGLIANO VALDOBBIADENE D.O.C.G. My favourite is https://bortolinangelo.wine/ You will not find the word PROSECCO in the bottle, but all the quality of the best CONEGLIANO VALDOBBIADENE DOCG hand picked grapes. Of all the ones I tried on these HILLS this product is by far the BEST I have ever had. (pio dal cin – copyright 2020- photo and texts)